SAN QUENTIN -- If Scott Peterson is condemned to die he would become the latest addition to a San Quentin Death Row that already houses serial killer Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, Richard Allen Davis, the killer of Polly Klaas, David Carpenter, the Trailside Killer, and recently arrived Cary Stayner.

Ironically, Peterson could also catch an occasional glimpse across the San Francisco Bay waters of the spot where he launched his boat on Christmas Eve 2002, not far from where the bodies of his pregnant wife and unborn child eventually floated to shore.

Now convicted of their murders, Peterson will be transported to San Quentin if the jury recommends a death sentence following a hearing that begins Monday.

BEE STAFF REPORTS The penalty phase in Scott Peterson's double-murder trial is scheduled to begin today in San Mateo County Superior Court, but his attorney is hoping for a delay.

Mark Geragos also is hoping the delay results from favorable rulings on two new motions: one to have a new jury decide Peterson's punishment, and one to have the penalty phase moved to another county.

The jury that Geragos is seeking to replace is the one that declared Peterson guilty Nov. 12 of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Laci, and of seconddegree murder in the death of their unborn son, Conner.

The jury now has two choices for Peterson's punishment: death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

For five months, Scott Peterson's attorney called his client a cheater, a heel and a jerk. He insisted, however, that he wasn't a murderer. On Nov. 12, a jury found otherwise.

So how does defense attorney Mark Geragos now ask that same jury to spare Peterson's life?

"It's very problematic," said Marcia Morrissey, a Los Angeles death penalty lawyer who has represented such high-profile defendants as Yosemite killer Cary Stayner, one of the Menedez brothers and Lanie Greenberger in the infamous "Cotton Club" case.

She says jurors don't tend to show compassion during the penalty phase for defendants who deny their crimes and are portrayed at trial as unredeemable adulterers.

The jury that convicted Peterson on Nov. 12 is slated to start weighing the death penalty for him by the middle of next week.

Before allowing testimony to start today, San Mateo Superior Court Judge Alfred Delucchi will consider a motion by Peterson's defense attorney Mark Geragos seeking a new trial or at least a new penalty phase....

Nov. 22, 2004  There was no doubt that the crowd outside the courthouse in Redwood City, Calif., approved of the verdict in Scott Peterson's murder trial.

When jurors convicted Peterson of first-degree murder in the slaying of his pregnant wife, Laci, and second-degree murder in the death of the unborn son they had named Conner, people outside the courthouse erupted in cheers. Some cried with joy and hugged bystanders. Others mugged for the cameras with newspapers that already had the headline "Guilty!" atop a photo of Peterson. Some pumped their fists in the air. .......

When Peterson trial Judge Alfred A. Delucci began dismissing jurors after several days of deliberations, I got the uneasy feeling that something sinister may be looming, something more to the deliberations than the evidence and the instructions from the judge.

Just as the lawyers, judges and even witnesses in the case had become instant celebrities, the opportunity was ripe for the lone juror to join those ranks.

There are few places that the media spotlight has been as intense as the trial of Scott Peterson, convicted of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Connor, seemingly so he could be free to pursue his mistress Amber Frey. The public fascination ........

It was where she planned to start a family, and where prosecutors say he killed her.

And now that a jury has convicted Scott Peterson of murdering his pregnant wife and unborn son, questions swirl around what will become of the couple's Covena Avenue home in Modesto.

Once the site of media stakeouts, 24-hour police surveillance and impromptu shrines for Laci Peterson and the son the couple planned to name Conner, the house now lies at the heart of a legal morass involving criminal convictions, lawsuits and a loan.

The single-story 1,770-square-foot home in the La Loma neighborhood was the joint property of two people once described as the perfect couple.

SACRAMENTO - Scott Peterson could spend his remaining years catching glimpses of the bay where he launched his boat on Christmas Eve 2002, not far from where the bodies of his pregnant wife and unborn child eventually floated to shore.

Now convicted of their murders, Peterson will be transported to San Quentin State Prison overlooking San Francisco Bay if the jury recommends a death sentence following a hearing that begins Monday.

Cell doors on two of the three units at San Quentin look past walkways patrolled by rifle-toting guards, out at the same water that doomed Peterson when jurors didn't buy his alibi, that he just happened to be fishing when his wife, Laci Peterson, disappeared. The rooftop exercise yard on the original 1934 death row building, which now houses 68 of the best behaved condemned inmates, also overlooks the bay.

Should Peterson, 32, be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, he would almost certainly be sent to one of the state's eight maximum security prisons.........

ESCALON  Laci and Conner Peterson's park bench seats only two, but nearly 2,000 people converged on downtown Escalon on Saturday morning to dedicate the memorial to the former Escalon resident. Many were part of a procession of 1,700 motorcycles that left Modesto for Burwood Cemetery and downtown Escalon, and returned to Modesto.

The mood was festive for a memorial; a crowd that had already gathered at Main Street Park cheered when the cycles rolled through downtown, led by Laci Peterson's cousin, Shawn Rocha, and her mother, Sharon Rocha.

The event was a repeat of a similar ride organized last year by Shawn Rocha, in which 500........

"I really do not think the jury will give him the death sentence. Am I in the minority?"

I agree, I don't think he'll get death either. I think the jury will lean on the conservative side and spare his life. The absense of overwhelmingly real physical evidence leads me to believe that he'll get life - hopefully without possiblility of parole. He's been a waste of tax payer money. Let him rot in prison or give him death, it's all the same to me.

Some dumb nut case even married him after he was put on death row. How could a sane woman let a man that carved out eyeballs of his victems for trophies event touch her let alone have an intimate sexual man/wife relationship. Sends shivers down my spine.

If Scotty get the death penalty he will be in the company of demons.

22
posted on 11/22/2004 6:22:10 AM PST
by oceanperch
( President Bush and The First Lady Laura God Bless You!)

The jury will decide (IMHO) that it will be far more severe a punishment to sentence Scotty-boy to life without the possiblity of parole, so he can "think about" the deaths of his wife and unborn son for the rest of his life.

That also leaves open the possibility that one day Scotty might be out in the general population and as Jackie Gleason might have said:

While I'm in favor of capital punishment, I think that even if Scott were sentenced to death, he would outlive a lot of us here on this thread, because of endless appeals.

This is one case where it might be better for him to live out the rest of his miserable life in Pelican Bay, with the "worst of the worst", becoming the girlfriend of a few dozen hardened serial rapists.

The prosecution's jury advisor was on Geraldo last night and pointed out that the jury has already agreed unanimously that Peterson meets the Special Circumstance criteria.

He read that as an indication that this jury could, indeed, be inclined to give him the death penalty.

We have more circus acts coming up, yet, provided by Geragos. But I will not be surprised at all to see Scott end up on Death Row.

Have you talked to a single person who thought there was even a possibility that he didn't do it? I mean other than here, where we watched Clinton get away with murder (in some cases literally!) and OJ be aquitted, so we tend to expect pathetic surprises from the Justice system. But out there, it's a slam dunk that Scott is the demon Distaso painted him as.

I'm betting on Death recommendation. Delucchi is free to have LWOP as the sentence ultimately imposed, but Scott has no friends on the this jury, imo.

Even if the jury recommends the death penalty for Scotty, he may die of old age on death row. There are over 600 (!!!) inmates on death row at the Q. Only 10 have had their sentences carried out since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977.

There is a proposal to build a new death row. One of the reasons is that it is not handicapped accessible - many of the inmates are aging, and are now in wheelchairs and using walkers.

Saw that motorcycle parade on Briggsmore Avenue Saturday afternoon as they headed back to the Harley-Davidson store. Under police escort, they stopped all traffic as over a thousand bikes passed by. Mighty impressive sight of all those bikers showing support for the Rocha family.

Prisoners on death row don't have cell mates. As I understand it, they are locked down for 23 hours a day, and get 1 hour a day for exercise and showers. Also, even if they don't make it to their execution day, they can NEVER be released. Sometimes a prisoner can get a compassionate release if they have a terminal disease. This won't happen with a condemned prisoner.

After seeing some video clips of Scotty before he was arrested, I was thinking about how drastically his life has changed since he decided to kill his wife and son. I'm sure he thought his life would improve and that he would be free to play. Well, Scotty, your life in death row will sure put a crimp in your style.

The fact that all those dirtbags are still "living" there just makes me a bit more surly this Monday. They should have all been disposed of long ago.

The government has set up a site in Nevada . . . Yucca Mountain, maybe? . . . to send all it's nuclear waste to, right? I hereby propose that EVERY criminal sentenced to death should be sent to us barbaric, Neanderthal, snaggle-toothed Texans . . . because being sentenced to the death penalty means something in our fair state.

Yes, yes, we have the occasional slimeball who manages to fall through the cracks . . . but for the most part we carry out the sentences in a timely manner.

Different state laws you say? Fine, let the slimeballs appeal all they want . . . but in today's internet world they could do it via a video-cam. We're an impatient lot, we'll give them all the rope they want . . . but we'll keep tugging like crazy on that sucker until they're dealt with.

I was joking when I started this . . . but it started making more and more sense the more I wrote. Susan Sarandumb, Sean Peanut-Brain, Danny "I love Fidel" Glover, and all the other Cali-liberals won't cotton to the reception us Texicans would give them if they showed up to protest here. They damn sure won't be welcomed with open arms like they are in California when they start their No Death Penalty crapola.

31
posted on 11/22/2004 7:21:50 AM PST
by geedee
(If you're a liberal, what you say is protected. If you're a conservative, it's hateful.)

Thank you for the articles & pings. Almost to the end...where the horny bastard fades to black, one way or another. Hopefully court goes on today...no more Geragos delays. For the first time since the trial began, I think it is possible for him to get death.

In retrospect, his ruse of Laci being missing was cruelty on top of cruelty. Too bad HE doesn't have to pay for the extra $$ spent running down false leads, and searching the bay. And then there is the additional heartbreak to family and friends, not knowing Laci's fate for all those months. Like all murderers, he has devastated many lives - I'm not so sure any more that the jurors, who had to breath his air all those months, will spare him.

In looking back, I think Amber has been the hero of this investigation by coming forward to the cops and all the tapes. I think the tapes showed the Jury just how much Snott was trying to move on with his life instead of joining in the search. Either way, life or death he will get his due in prison, everyone wants a piece of Scotty boy and the notoriety that will go with it.....

37
posted on 11/22/2004 7:54:30 AM PST
by Searching4Justice
(I now have my Congressman in my corner, might have to change my name soon)

"It normally would have gone to Scott Peterson after his wife's death. But under the state law, someone who murders a co-owner "has no rights by survivorship."

Following his murder convictions, Peterson retains his stake in the home, but his wife's half transfers to her mother, Sharon Rocha, attorneys specializing in probate and real estate law said. Last year, a judge appointed her administrator of Laci Peterson's estate.

This is what I had thought since California is a community property state.

Because Scott was convicted of murdering Laci he is not entitled to her half but he still maintains his half.

Well he's the SAME ilk OP!! I'm not so sure this guy won't get the Death Penalty. However, if he get's LWOP it may turn into a death penalty anyway. Somebody in the general population probably can't wait to knock him off. In fact, it would save CA a lot of money.

48
posted on 11/22/2004 3:22:53 PM PST
by Canadian Outrage
(All us Western Canuks belong South - we'd make good Americans!!)

Is that ever pathetic Cheri!! I heard one really experienced Prosecutor on Nancy Grace this afternoon describe why executions in CA take so long. He said "in a word, the 9th circut court of appeals, they are judicial terrorists and should be in Guantanomo Bay" !! I thought WOW, WHY don't Californians get rid of this bunch? They cost each and every tax payer mega tax dollars. Disgusting imo. They are obviously hard core bleeding heart liberals with absolutely NO controlling body over them. It ought to be changed. They effectively nullify the Juries sentence.

49
posted on 11/22/2004 3:34:20 PM PST
by Canadian Outrage
(All us Western Canuks belong South - we'd make good Americans!!)

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